Anemic performance in the mountains

I think you meant #8.

 

The system was designed to address that. 5 years of colds starts on a regular basis never revealed any wear. That same 2012 Prius PHV is still working fine. (I sold it to a friend.)

Here's a video of one such drive. Notice how RPM is kept low, despite the hard acceleration up hill on the highway.

 

My Gen3 can climb a 7% grade pretty well without needing to break 4000 rpm, though it can't be a leader with that artificial restriction, and I do go higher getting up to speed after the ramp. This is at a low altitude, nowhere near Colorado.

But holding down to just 2400 rpm? That would require turning on emergency flashers to alert others to the slow vehicle ahead of them.

 

Thanks to the HSD, max wheel torque is disconnected from max engine torque.

So just put the engine to max power, then let the HSD figure out the torque-rpm tradeoff at the wheels.

 

I’d go as far to say this is dangerous and irresponsible driving behavior. Keep up with traffic or get off the road.

Higher rpms will not hurt the engine. These engines max RPM is still low compared to most engines.

 

You're way too worried about the effect of RPM on break-in.

Remember, you're driving an intensely engineered vehicle, completely surrounded by automation. If the car needed a specific break-in routine in order to keep Toyota from paying out engine warranty work, the ECU would be doing it for you.

Just smile and drive

 

I hold back on making this criticism because there are heavy trucks climbing at similarly slow speeds. I don't believe in forcing cars to drive faster than speeds that everyone agrees are acceptable for other on-road vehicles.

But going this slow does demand having hazard flashers turned on, just like those heavy trucks

And it isn't like these steep climbs are for an extended period. The 7% grades I travel are for significantly less than 10 minutes. They are not like some other places where people are going 90+ mph for hours.